


Shouldn't it be Yellow?

by PaddyWack



Series: Touch of Magic [3]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Creative License, Dan is a good guy, Let's be friends, M/M, Multi, Potions Class (Harry Potter), Slice of Life, Teenager Problems, it's always potions class, still being abused, you're a wizard eddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 05:26:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16549784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaddyWack/pseuds/PaddyWack
Summary: It always happens in Potions.





	Shouldn't it be Yellow?

**Author's Note:**

> Again, thank you all for the response to this series! Not as pleased with how this one turned out, but what can you do? 
> 
> I hope you enjoy regardless, and stick around for more Hogwarts snapshots.

Eddie keeps his eyes pinned to his potions book. Across their shared table, he can _feel_ Anne glaring at him.

 

_She is going to sabotage our cauldron._

He only just stops himself from responding to his Obscurus out loud. He bites his lip and tries to make it apparent to them that Anne wouldn’t do that, she’s a nice person – though, to be fair, he would totally deserve it if she did. It would serve him right to have his potion exam explode right in his face and fail the course.

 

Judging by the prickling in his arms and shoulders, the whole telepathic link thing is getting lost in translation again, muddled by sights and smells and a whole slew of other minor anxieties that make it difficult to communicate without physically speaking. Eddie sighs and rubs his forehead. Even though talking out loud to himself makes him look like a lunatic, it’s so much easier than this mess.

 

“You may begin,” the professor says suddenly from the front of the room, and begins winding idly through the blended Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff students to check their progress brewing a basic Wiggenweld potion.

 

Eddie glances up and finds Anne still glowering at him like he’s the scum of the earth. Used to be, he could give her a hangdog look of utter hopelessness and she would soften up like a cinnamon roll, but now when he tries it he sees her eyes burn with poorly concealed aggravation.

 

“Ahem.” Dan twiddles his wand between his fingers and watches them both nervously. “So…should I start?”

 

_Spit in his face._

“Jesus – what?” Eddie snaps, directing not a small amount of irritation inward and consequently startling the two Ravenclaws.

 

“Sorry,” Dan quickly amends, looking confused and extremely uncomfortable. “Did you want to start?”

 

Anne sighs in a way that would make any dragon proud, and Eddie is kind of surprised no actual flames come out. “I’ll do it.” She grabs the large bottle of salamander blood from the kit and begins to pipet drops into their shared cauldron. “Dan, start stirring it for me, will you?”

 

Ever eager to please, Dan does just that. Eddie pinches his own wrist, vindictive, until he feels his Obscurus vibrating in protest, and sincerely wishes he could be anywhere else but here.

 

After a long moment, he rubs the back of his neck and asks awkwardly, “Sorry. Uh – what can I do?”

 

“Shut up and keep your hands to yourself.”

 

“Anne, be fair. It’s a group project,” Dan says, and Eddie kind of hates the gentle reproach in his voice. He absolutely does _not_ need Dan-the-mediator sticking up for him. Especially against Anne.

 

She gives him a sharp look in response, and a part of Eddie is gleeful at the prospect of him getting eaten alive for daring to contradict her. To his dismay, however, Anne merely shrugs.

 

“Fine,” she says innocently, and he knows he’s not going to like what comes out of her mouth next. “Eddie, you can start measuring out the flobberworm mucus.” She smiles prettily, and Eddie feels his stomach roll a little bit. He’s always hated the stuff, which of course Anne knows because she was there the first time he encountered it and witnessed the subsequent vomit-fest that happened as a result.

 

_We told you – they are trying to sabotage us._

Eddie sighs and tries to block out the agitated presence currently prickling inside his chest. He grabs the brass scales and, ignoring the queasiness, starts to measure out mucus for the potion.

 

They work in relative silence after that, broken only by the occasional “now add this” or “wait for it to boil” and also “shouldn’t it be yellow? why is it blue?”. After an hour of letting the potion brew steadily and then chill, they are left with a cauldron of vaguely turquoise-ish liquid that smells very strongly of boom berry juice.

 

Also, Eddie is pretty sure it’s hissing.

 

“I think we’re done,” Dan says, staring at the cauldron uncertainly. “What do you guys think?”

 

“Maybe?” Anne trails, looking just as uncertain and leaning slightly back from the strange mixture.

 

Eddie wrinkles his nose. “For better or worse, I guess.”

 

They stare at each other in turn and then shrug in mutual agreement. Whatever the outcome, they’ve completed the professor’s task, which is more than can be said for half the room. Most of the students are still struggling with getting the colors just right, or cauldrons dumping themselves out and having to start over.

 

“You were actually pretty helpful, Eddie,” Anne says after a long silence. Eddie looks at her with surprise and is even more shocked to see her gracing him with a begrudging half-smile – mostly a grimace, but still kind of a real smile.

 

Dan makes a sound in agreement. “Good teamwork.”

 

He starts to roll his eyes, a sarcastic retort on the tip of his tongue to hide the _feelings_ (because he is an emotionally stunted teenager, of course), when their cauldron suddenly puffs up a little bubble of blue-green mist. It floats up serenely between them, and then zips with surprising speed right into Dan’s shocked and suddenly very pale face.

 

Panicked, Anne yanks him out of reach from the table. “What just happened?!”

 

_Did we do that?_

Eddie shakes his head mutely in response and watches the two Ravenclaws with wide eyes. Perfect. Just what he needed. Right when it seemed like maybe Anne could stop being mad at him – now he’s totally going to be blamed for trying to kill her boyfriend.

 

“Dan? Are you okay?”

 

The other boy pats his chest and face worriedly. “I think so?” he answers, and then immediately breaks into a fit of girlish, high-pitched giggles.

 

Anne blinks. “Dan?”

 

He giggles again, looking utterly shocked and red in the face. “I don’t know why I’m doing that!”

 

Eddie sniggers. “You sound like a Japanese school girl.”

 

_Should we provide tentacles?_

Eddie chokes on another laugh and has to cover his mouth with a fist. Horrified, Dan claps his own hands over his mouth as a series of tinkling, utterly grating, giggles burst from his lips.

 

“Wow, you do kind of sound like a Japanese school girl,” Anne admits, struggling to hide her own mounting amusement.

 

Distracted, they don’t immediately notice more balls of mists slowly being belched from their questionable potion, and quickly spreading throughout the room. By the time they do realize what’s happening, he and Anne are bent double with their own giggle-fits (spurred on by genuine hilarity over how ridiculous they suddenly sound), along with nearly all of the surrounding students.

 

Even the professor is struggling to maintain composure as he quick-steps to their table and neutralizes the potion. “Not exactly what I asked for,” he giggles. “Half marks for the attempt, though.” Eddie suspects this is due to them being the only group to produce anything, let alone a functioning potion.

 

The three of them spit out some form of gratefulness between their giggling, and stumble out into the corridor with the rest of the students as they are assured by their Potion’s Master that the effects should wear off in the next couple of hours.

 

“Good thing that’s our last class for the day,” Anne manages between snickers and leans into Dan’s side. The pair of them are grinning like loons, comfortable and happy in each other’s orbit, and Eddie is surprised to find that it doesn’t bother him as much as it used to. “Let’s go to dinner. I’m _starved._ ”

 

He scratches his cheek and takes a step back, unsure of how to remove himself without making anyone uncomfortable. The giggling helps dispel the awkwardness, of course, but probably not well enough to completely eradicate all the hard feelings between the three of them.

 

He opens his mouth, still not sure of what’s going to come out but hoping for the best, when Anne speaks up again.

 

“Eddie, come sit at our table.”

 

She’s still breaking into fits of giggles and she’s holding Dan’s hand in a way that should upset him, but she’s also looking at him like he’s human – a very flawed human who has hurt her in the past, but one she is willing to forgive, and Eddie is pretty grateful for that.

 

_Eddie, we’re hungry._

 

He rubs his chest and tries to loudly and sarcastically remind his Obscurus that not twenty minutes ago they were convinced Anne and Dan were trying to sabotage their potion. He feels heat prickle his side in response, like someone has poked him with a quick, irritated jab.

 

_Hungry, Eddie._

 

It’s pretty much decided with that, he thinks. Nodding and trying to stem the girlish peals still tickling up his throat – unsuccessfully, because he’s pretty giddy about the whole situation – he falls into step beside them and follows the pair to the Great Hall.


End file.
